Dec 13 HTGAWM: S4 E8 Live. Live. Live.

What a rollercoaster of an episode! So many answers and still a few lingering questions. Let’s jump into what the kiddos were up to:

Keating 4/5/6ish: We kick things off at the Caplan and Gold party. Oliver is frantic and panicky (more than usual) and finds Michaela, Laurel, and Asher covered in blood. Who’s blood?!?! REWIND!

We head back to moments after Oliver told Connor about Wes’s murder and Laurel’s plot. Connor is so furious he breaks off the engagement before entering Laurel’s apartment! Connor is going off on the team and tells them he’s ready to tell Annalise. When he calls Frank on his b.s., Frank chokes him out (!) until Laurel separates them. Laurel then tries to guilt Connor into the whole plot when Connor gets a call from Annalise. He decides not to rat the team out, but warns them he’ll call Annalise if anything goes wrong.

At the Caplan and Gold party, Asher and Michaela attend together as a couple and Michaela tries to retrieve Teagan’s clutch with her key card to no avail. Oliver and Connor are quietly arguing when Simon comes along being annoying Simon. Meanwhile, Laurel’s at home pacing and worrying, and Frank is at Simon’s apartment attempting to frame him by placing some Antaris files on Simon’s home computer.

Simon approaches Oliver and confesses his crush to him. Adorbs! Kinda. Now, Simon wants to back out of the plan, especially the part involving framing innocent Simon. Michaela gets them all together when Laurel randomly shows up because she thought they might bail.

Finally, Teagan has to make a speech and gives Michaela her handbag. Plan is in action! Asher gives the keycard to Oliver and Laurel, who break into the IT room to start the takedown. It requires much more work than they initially thought. Michaela panics with a minute left of the speech, but fortunately Laurel and Oliver finish in time. Asher now wants to change the plan by placing the key card in Simon’s pocket. However, Oliver cannot find Simon right away! At the same time, Connor had called Annalise who then called Laurel to tell her she’d help her out in anyway. When Oliver can’t find Simon, he rushes to find the crew when we see the initial scene of him finding them covered in blood and he (and we!) see the body…It’s Simon! REWIND!!

Asher and Laurel tell Michaela about the change of plans when Simon walks in the room! Simon is ready to report them to Teagan when Laurel tries to bribe him. Laurel’s clearly hiding something in her bag and Simon wrestles it from her…and it contains a gun! Simon is recklessly carrying the gun when he trips, falls, and accidentally shoots himself!!!

Stupid Asher grabs the gun (fingerprints!!!) when we finally get the moment of Simon walking in. Michaela goes into fixer mode—She sends Laurel back to her apartment, Oliver is trying CPR, she frames the key card on Simon’s body, she wipes the gun and places it back in its previous location, and then instructs Connor to call 911.

Michaela, dripping in blood, goes back to the party and screams help. Michaela instructs Connor to leave the party. The police want to speak to Asher and subsequently arrest him. Meanwhile, Connor calls Michaela from Laurel’s apartment to tell Michaela that Laurel isn’t there. In the background, we see the man who works for Laurel’s father listening in on Connor’s call a few feet away from Laurel’s apartment. Creeper. These scenes end with images of Simon in the hospital (he’s the male in surgery!) being revived.

Annalise: The episode opens with Annalise heading home on a malfunctioning elevator in her building. Once she arrives on her floor, Bonnie is there ready to confess her involvement with Isaac and apologize. She’s also trying to claim credit for getting Annalise’s case certified by putting Isaac on the stand. Bonnie confesses her love for/to Annalise, but Annalise is like, “girl, bye!” Meanwhile, Isaac is going off on his ex-wife and stating he wasn’t ready to relapse until now and he cautions her to stay out of his business.

Annalise goes to visit Isaac and he’s worried about her reporting him and losing his license, but that isn’t in Annalise’s thoughts. She says she wants to keep seeing Isaac. As a client or as a lover, Annalise?!?! She claims as a client and that she still needs help. Before they can resolve all of this, Connor calls Annalise to tell him about Laurel’s plan and she leaves Isaac’s office.

Annalise calls Frank and goes off on him for being involved in their plan, while heading back home—this time avoiding the faulty elevator by taking the stairs. When she reaches her apartment, she hears some cries/screams. REWIND!

We see Laurel leave the party when she receives Annalise’s voicemail telling her that she will help her and instructing her to meet her at Annalise’s apartment/hotel room. Laurel boards the elevator she begins bleeding…a lot. We see a flashback of her trying to break-up the fight between Frank and Connor, and she was hit in the stomach! As hinted all episode, the elevator breaks down with her in it. Laurel begins screaming and it appears she is in intense pain. Next, we get 5 awful minutes of television…

Laurel tries to call 911 but doesn’t have any service as she continues to bleed out. She begins crying for help and we see Frank trying to call her, but she’s lost consciousness. Luckily, Annalise did hear her cries and heard the police. Annalise is able to get the outer doors to the elevator open but not the gate, and sees Laurel’s baby on the elevator floor!!!! OMG!!! Annalise calls 911 and they’re instructing her to get the baby and begin CPR. Annalise is finally able to reach the baby, clip the umbilical cord, and slip the baby through the gate to begin CPR. The episode ends with Annalise delivering CPR and fades to black…and we hear a baby cry.

What happened to Laurel’s baby: This wasn't completely answered, but we saw Annalise "deliver" the baby and perform CPR. Also, a baby cried before the credits.

Burning Questions: Unfortunately, we did not get any of the hospital scenes this episode, but I'm okay with that. Still, how does Isaac know all Michaela and Frank? And the latest question is: How much does Laurel's dad know about everything?

Overall: WHAT A MID-SEASON FINALE! It felt much longer than an hour. The writers amped up the drama this go around and it made for an intense episode. This was some of the best acting from the Keating 4/5/6. I felt kinda bad for Simon for a split second. Haha! Also, whoever scored this episode was incredible--the music made each scene more intense. I'm excited for the back half of the season.

Quote(s) of the week:

Bye, bye, bye.-Asher

What did you think of the mid-season finale? Did Asher confess something? What do you think happens to the baby next? Leave your thoughts on How to Get Away with Murder in the comments.